Utah: Week 8

This past week was one of adventure! Well sort of. The kids started school in Utah for the first week, and Kas did not want his picture taken. He was very adamant about just getting to school. Zo and Netter however were a little different, they wanted a ton of pictures. So Elise grabbed a lot of pictures for that. While they were off having fun preparing for the first day of school, I was off in California for business.

So let me explain this real quick, before I get back to the kids. I flew in to Long Beach, got an awesome rental car (Dodge Avenger) which had some power. I get to the hotel, and the lobby is great. Very plush, very nice. Staff is completely friendly and completely nice. The pool side is even better. Love the set up and the layout, the private cabanas and the lounge pool side. Then I check in and find out I have to pay for parking???? Really. This hotel is already difficult to get in to, and the parking is not really secure at all anyway, but ok. It is a nice place not too much to worry about. I get into the room and I swear I was in the wrong hotel at this point. The money I am paying for this, and the way I saw the lobby and surroundings, I swear I checked in to something from the 70’s. The vent over the entry area was filthy, the room was hotter than hell, and it was furniture I would expect to find in a sleazy $30 a night motel. They had an old 27″ CRT TV too! I half way expected to find channel dials on it. Really disappointing in the room view, but everything else was nice.

Ok, back to the kids. They had a fun first week of school. They all told me about the day, the kids they met and sounded like they had fun. Elise, I think was happy to have them back in school too. She was able to get more jogging in, did some canning, got caught up on other things and it seemed very productive. I had many great meeting in California, got some good ocean air in, and then was excited to get home. It was very fun too. The plane ride was, well, a plane ride. Seems airlines like to pack people in like sardines anymore. But luckily it was only a short flight home. I was so excited to see the kids again.

Saturday we washed the jeep and took the top off. Went for a ride down to Utah Lake, and it really does suck there. Maybe we went to the wrong place or something, but it was more like a mosquito infested swamp than a lake. We drove around and saw really nothing we wanted to stay there for. Maybe we are just on the wrong place for the lake. But driving with the top off is so nice. It even rained a little while we were driving and it did not impact us much. Sunday we got a good lightning storm and some rain. The kids were outside running around with the neighbor kids during the storm.

Anyway, not as many pictures as before, but here they are.

Zo posing on the first day of school

Zo and Netter posing on the porch before leaving for the bus stop

Netter posing for the first day of school.

The hotel entry was immaculate, the pool side even more so, the restaurant was great, then I get to my room and it was a page out of the 70’s

This is what awaited me when I came in the room. This vent was over the entry way, and was filthy

At least this vent was clean, was kind of worried about that, especially since this was supposed to be a good hotel

Zo and Netter waiting for the bus

Zo and Netter excited to see the bus. The bus broke down so a different bus had to come get them and it was late

Netter and Zo getting on the bus that was late on the first day of school

Elise takes these some times when she is out running

Elise did some major canning this past week and made some really good stuff

Elise took the girls down to the park Friday night because they wanted to play.

Here is the new table Elise got for us.

A look over the mountains as the lightning storm came rolling in.

Here is the view from the other side of the street, still open, but the storm came in fast.